The Lord Jesus Christ Magnifying The Law

No teaching should be placed before us without us learning and understanding the 100% perfect teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of God.

Who but the Lord Jesus Christ can give this promise to you today?John 14:23 Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.’

If you are not as the Lord Jesus describes in John 14:23, but as in v24, then this webpage should be visited first. Followed by this webpage.

What Charles Finney did, was to teach in a way that encouraged and assisted the Disciple’s ability to understand the teachings of the Holy Bible that reinforces and applies the teaching.

Who was Charles Grandison Finney, “American clergyman, revivalist preacher, and educator. Finney was born in Litchfield county, Conn., on Aug. 27, 1792. He studied law from 1818 to 1821, when he had a sudden conversion experience. After this he began to preach and was licensed to preach by the Presbyterian denomination in 1824. Wherever he travelled he started extensive religious revivals.

Finney was criticized because he emphasized the will of man in the process of regeneration and employed revival techniques that became known as “New Measures”, calculated to evoke a highly emotional response. Impatient with Presbyterianism, he became a Congregationalist, serving New York City’s Broadway Tabernacle.

(This Sermon Text has not been altered. I just put in gaps to make it easier to read)

CHRIST MAGNIFYING THE LAW

A SERMON

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 19, 1850,

BY THE REV. C. G. FINNEY, OF AMERICA

AT THE TABERNACLE, MOORFIELDS.

Text: Isaiah 42:21 New International Version – UK (NIVUK)
21
It pleased the Lord
for the sake of his righteousness
to make his law great and glorious.

IN speaking from these words, I propose to consider–

I. OF WHOM THE PROPHET IS SPEAKING.

II. WHY HE SHOULD MAGNIFY THE LAW AND MAKE IT HONOURABLE.

III. HOW HE SHALL DO THIS.

And then conclude with some inferences and remarks.

I. Of whom the prophet is speaking. I believe it is agreed that these words are spoken of our Lord Jesus Christ: I know not that this is called in question. It is said, “The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake,” the person spoken of here, then, is our Lord Jesus Christ. The next inquiry is–

II. Why he should magnify the law and make it honourable; and what law is this? 1. Here let me remark, that very much of the infidelity and skepticism in the world has originated in this fact, that so many men have never attained to clear conceptions of what the law of God really is, and its relation to themselves; they generally look no farther than the letter of the law, entirely overlooking its spirit; and regarding it as emanating simply from the arbitrary will of God, and that he can dispense with the execution of it at pleasure.

To make myself understood, I must give you my idea of the true nature of the moral law which is here spoken of. We have the letter of this law in the table of what are called the ten commandments; and indeed all the preceptive parts of the Bible may be regarded as simply explanatory of this law, as the principle contained in it applies to the outward conduct of human life. A just conception of the spirit of the moral law will show us that it originated in the eternal and immutable nature of God. From all eternity, God necessarily possessed an existence, and with that existence certain attributes–natural attributes. He possessed omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and so forth. Now, there must have been some way in which it became him, from his very nature, to use these attributes; these attributes he possessed necessarily, and eternally, and there must be some way in which his intelligence must affirm that these attributes ought to be used.

Now, observe, when we understand truly the spirit of the moral law, our reason affirms that all creatures are under obligation to exercise universal obedience to it. The moral law, then, is this–the eternal affirmation of God’s own mind in respect to what course of conduct is proper in himself and in all moral agents; it is the eternal and necessary affirmation of the Divine reason and conscience as to how the attributes of any moral agent ought to be used. It is a necessary idea in God’s mind, and in the mind of all moral agents: for example, no man can doubt that God’s eternal reason must have affirmed that he ought to be benevolent. Who can doubt that selfishness or malevolence in God would have been sin in him? If God had been selfish and malevolent instead of being benevolent, that would have been sin in him; and why? Because God is a moral agent. Men are moral agents, and they have a nature which necessarily leads them to affirm this.

The benevolence of God is really his virtue: and why? Because the exercise of benevolence is in compliance with that rule of conduct which was becoming in God to pursue; his reason affirmed his own obligation to it. Now, I have thought sometimes, that persons entirely overlook the fact that God is himself a moral agent, and the subject of moral obligation as really as they are. Some people startle at this, lest it should be thought derogatory to God’s character; but if this were not so, God could not be virtuous: as he is a moral agent, he must be under moral obligation.

The moral law was not given to God by any other being, for he is “a law unto himself”–his own eternal reason and conscience affirming that the carrying out of the principles of benevolence would be right in him, and of course the opposite wrong. When, therefore, God acts according to the moral law, he acts in compliance with an eternal law of his own nature, by which he was led to determine his own conduct, as the condition of his own happiness, and as the condition of the happiness of all moral agents.

Let it be understood, then, that the moral law did not originate in God’s arbitrary will; it lay further back–in a necessary law of his own eternal consciousness; as a rule of action it was prescribed to him by his own consciousness.

This law is also prescribed to us by our own consciousness as well as enforced by the authority of God; and if we possessed none to legislate for us, and while possessing the same nature that we now do, our consciousness would have prescribed this rule of action to us–affirming that we ought to be benevolent.

If the arbitrary will of God had originated this law, he could dispense with it at his pleasure; he could change the nature of virtue and vice, he could make that which is now virtue vice, and that which is now vice virtue, simply by altering his law; but does any one think that God could do this? Now, God never can change the nature of virtue and vice, and he claims no such power. This law having originated thus, and not by God’s arbitrary will, it is binding upon us, as moral agents, by the very laws of our being. God created us moral agents like himself, and thus made this law obligatory upon us, enjoined it upon us by his own authority, and made it obligatory, also, by a law of our own nature.

Now, the spirit of this law requires universal and perfect benevolence to God and man. By benevolence I mean love, with reference to the law of God and to the universe; this is what God’s law requires of all moral agents.

Now, observe, this law is as unalterable as God’s own nature is–he did not create it, neither can he alter it in the least degree; he did not create it any more than he created himself–it never began to be any more than God did himself. Originating in his own self-existing nature, his own reason must have eternally recognised it as the course of action to be pursued by him; and thus it is plain that this law can never be repealed by him, and made less obligatory in reference to himself, or us–it can never undergo any change in its requirements, and can never be dispensed with in any case whatever.

To be chosen for Salvation, you have to be as the Lord Jesus describes in John 14:23!

Those whom the Lord will refuse entry into Heaven and send into Hell are described in John 14:24!

There is no religion, Christian or any Other, that can do what the Lord Jesus proclaimed He can do. Revelation 1:18 ‘I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.’

In my testimony you will see how over time I was influenced by the Gospel of Jesus until I chose to love the Lord Jesus. I also describe those I have observed to be showing signs of rejecting the Gospel. They are unable to produce a testimony of their own walk with God – before and after salvation. Though for some, it might be the case of they are not yet able to form in their mind what is happening to them.